Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-04-14
=, THURSDAY. APRIL IA. 1887.
Causes of Social Uneasiness
IRoNToN, March 9th, 1887

Ed. RegiSfeT-Some Time slnce IN
tmated an intention of giving my
views as to what were some Of the evils
menacipg the public good, and the
remedies which have suggested them
selves to me.
And just here, before going fur rther, /
desire to say that, in my estimation,
the evils do net, of themselves. lay in
the holding of large bodies of land by
the individual man or by companies of
men. Large holdings Qarger than are
in consonance with the public good
are, rather, evidences of the existence
the evil, than the root and the founda-
ton of the evil itself. If the evil Ito
which l will come later) did not exist,
or existed in less aggravated form,
then there would not be so many and
so large holdings of land. Land mo-
nopo!y is only one OF the many results
of the evil. AID to undertake to tax
land monopoly cut OF existence, would
be only to aggravate existent evils, for
that would surely eventuate i'll raising
the price Of products of land, most of
which increase in price by reason of
the numerical superiority of the power
ty stricken, and they by reason of that
consuming the great mass
of said products, would come out of the
scauUy purses of those least able to bear
that increase in value OF said products.
I do not presume that even the sage Of
NurrayUiIie will deny that the con-
from the very nature of things,
has to pay the tax upon the things
whether that tax be direct
or indirect. And any reasoning man
can see that tax upon land is indirect
tax upon the products, results, profits
(crops) of said lend.
And, right here let me remind the
reader, that even if large holdings OF
la Ed are evils land / dent deny it)
those evils are not apparent, do not ex-
st IN America, save in large cities,
rom th e investment of the Rhineland-
ars and the Astors, or in some OF the
territories where fraudulent speculat-
ing rings have been aided by. speculat-
ing governmental rings.
The day has not yet come in Amer
ca, the land holding evil has not
arrived at that pitch with us, as to
Justify our reenacting the laws of the
Edwards and other English kings
lands held IN n1ortud mama,
Statutes of Mortmain," !" Statutes of
Uses and Trusts" etc. And that day
lever will come in America, for unlike
he England Of that day, the wealth of
his country is not solely land. Then, |
md in all European countries, the
wealth of the different peopler was al
most altogether land, as evidenced by |
he fact that the grant of the tithe, or |
enth part, of all the personal property |
IF the kingdom of England would not
md did not net to the king fraction |
)f what our internal revenue tax, de-
lived from whisky and tobacco alone,
pays into or treasury IN one month.
In other days and in other lands, |
said, the principal evils of people |
might have been incident to the hold
Dgs of land and to the manner of its
holding. But in those days the occu-
patton of all able-bCdied men was war.
AZ least, was the case to such extent |
as to paralyze trade, to keep down
values of commodities movable in their
Iature, ard delay the birth of public
and private credit. But as years rolled
IN, and as centuries counted up, the
luman intelligence continued to adj
vance toward that high standard, Of
which this age so loudly boasts, and as
hat goal became nearer, wars and ru-
nors of wars came less to occupy mems
minds. 1t ceased to he the sine QuI
ION in gentlemandom, to be priest or
soldier. 1t likewise was not, and is
lot necessary (by reason of that hu-
nan proeress) that to be man, with the
lights and feelings of manhood, that
ne must be able to trace descent
rom long line of miniature despots
# bloody-handed robbers under forms
# law, nor yet be necessary to be able
O point to, at least, four quarterings
N the family shield, beyond which
oomed an army contractor or tallow
handler.
Under the new of order things, brought
bout by human progress, blood and
ron and brute force ceased to rule
lone, and then trade, founded upon
public and private faith and credit, be-
ran to dispute sway with the old order
# things. 'Tis true, we still have wars,
,ut they are not, as formerly, for an
dea or for imaginary wrongs, but are
low, directly or indirectly, for the ad-
of-trade. Commerce. Not
rade and commerce in land, but
TRADE. Trade in everything existent.
nd the medium of that trale is MON
sY, fictitious standard of value adopt
I'd by common consent, and for its
value dependent upon public faith,
and the continuance of that common
consent, and which standards of value,
being done away with, the elements
,ut of which that money is made,
would become as worthless as rags or
ron. And that standard of value,
money, was enacted to take the place
Of the original basis of trade; that is,
barter in kind.
And, now, have led up to that point
where I can announce what in my es-
timation are the evils under which we